Well, well, well, what do we have here? Is that a competent baseball team I see?
9-2 in their last eleven games. A young flamethrower bouncing back from a bad outing with six shut out innings. Solid defense, every single person in the lineup reaching base at least once, and a big win on the road against a White Sox team who entered the evening 24-6 in their last 30 home games. Who the hell is this team and where have they been all year?
In what very much felt like a make or break road trip regarding trade deadline decisions for the 2026 season, the Red So have started it 4-0 and continue to climb back into the Wild Card hunt. Not only that, but tonight they did it largely behind Payton Tolle shutting down a spunky White Sox lineup, which in the grand scheme of things is the gift that keeps on giving.
Retiring 15 of the last 16 hitters he faced, Tolle cruised once he was handed a 3-0 lead in the second inning. In doing so, he displayed a pair of characteristic you want to see if you’re looking for a future ace. One, he bounced back from a terrible outing against the Nationals (great pitchers rarely have two stinkers in a row), and two, he seemed to get stronger the deeper he worked within this game. The second item is something that’s not only encouraging to see in general, but especially awesome from Tolle who has shown signs of running out of gas in some of his outings this year. Tonight, the tank looked full even as he reached his finish line.
In a series opener that felt like it was just asking to be about a former Red Sox farmhand they traded away, it instead was about the dominant performance of a guy they kept.
Here’s all six of his strikeouts:
Payton Tolle: Duh! Six shutout innings in a bounce back beauty for the big man!
Andruw Monasterio: A pair of hits and a walk, but most importantly, he also got the scoring started with a solo home run in the second.
Ceddanne Rafaela: Like Monasterio, Rafaela had a pair of hits, and also like Monasterio, he hit a home run in the second inning. This time, it was a two-run shot that gave Boston a 3-0 lead.
Danny Coulombe: There was one brief moment where it felt like the Red Sox might blow this game, and it came in the bottom of the seventh shortly after the bullpen door swung open for Coulombe. He walked the first batter he faced (always a good sign), and allowed the tying run to come to the plate with nobody out. While he did get Kyle Teel for the first out of the inning, Justin Slaten had to clean up his mess.
Failing to land a knockout punch earlier: If we’re going to nitpick, and we have to in the duds section on a night like this, the Red Sox had baserunners in each and every one of the first six innings. They also left the bases loaded in the opening frame, and yet, they only took a 4-1 lead into the top of the ninth. If they were able to cash in just a couple more runs while Tolle was dealing, they would have been able to stay away from Slaten and Whitlock in what turned into an 8-1 blowout, leaving them in an even better position going into the final two games of the series.
The umpiring crew: Home plate umpire Charlie Ramos lost his first five ABS challenges, many on strikes where the ball was almost completely in the zone, and he didn’t even have the most memorable performance from an umpire this evening. Instead, that award goes to:
Third base umpire Nestor Ceja, who made this amusing pair of calls on Contreras’ ninth inning double down the left field line.
At least it was entertaining and fun, which certainly were the themes of the night for Red Sox fans. Jake Bennett goes tomorrow to try and keep the party bus rolling.
